‘He Still Reacted to My Name’: Vishal Bhardwaj remembers mentor Bashir Badr

Years later, when dementia had erased much of his memory, Bashir Badr would still react to Vishal Bhardwaj's name, the filmmaker said, recalling the formative bond he shared with the great Urdu poet from the age of 19.

Badr was a rising star on the literary scene and Bhardwaj just a student who had fallen in love with the poet's verses. Such was the impact of Badr's poetry that he still remembers the first couplet that he heard all those years ago: "Yeh ek ped hai, aa is se mil ke ro le hum, yahan se tere mere raaste badalate hain".

The poet passed away on Thursday at the age of 91, almost a decade after he withdrew from public performances due to the onset of dementia.

"Whenever I called his home to check on him, his son Tayeb and Rahat apa (Badr's wife) would tell me that he still reacts to my name. I remember, we cried so much when we got to know he had dementia.

"In 2010, he had stopped talking for days and one day I had forgotten a couplet. I said, 'Mera dimag bhi dhadakata hai mere dil ki tarah...' and asked him, 'Doc sahab, I don't remember the next line' and he suddenly added, 'Mita diye hain faasle sab mohabbat ne'. We were all surprised. So, sometimes he would have these flashes of memory," Bhardwaj told PTI in an interview.

Over the years, the filmmaker has honoured Badr through his work - whether by including the poet's name and poetry in "Dedh Ishqiya" or by using his writing for composing music in films such as "Betaabi" and "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar", projects from the early years of his career.

Bhardwaj has independently composed and released many of Badr's ghazals, most recently "Main Ghana Andhera Hoon". Next month, he will release another composition from the poet, "Nariyal ke Darakhton ki Pagal Hawa".

"The track of poetry in my life is the strongest part of my personality, my creativity. My music is because of my poetry. My films are because of my poetry. My father was also a poet. And I consider Bashir Badr and Gulzar as my other parental figures. They have shaped me. I am so fortunate to have had that influence in my life."

Looking back at their friendship, Bhardwaj said it all began in Meerut, where Badr used to live and teach while the director was still a student. Badr's daughter and Bhardwaj's sister were classmates.

He asked his sister to take him to meet Saba (Badr's daughter) who then lent him Badr's book. The filmmaker said he spent the night copying the verses in his diary.

It was a time when names like Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh and Chitra, and Pankaj Udhaas had started "brewing this tornado of Urdu poetry and ghazal" and the youth was obsessed with poetry.

"I think this was the most beautiful youth period of India."

Bhardwaj eventually started to frequent the poet's house.

"At the time, my memory was really sharp... I could easily memorise poems. I started meeting doc sahab every weekend. He used to read to me his latest poems.

"Then, the very unfortunate incident happened, his house was burnt down (in 1987). Most of his latest work was burnt along with the house. We are such a bad race as people that we burn poets' houses."

Badr also lost his first wife at around the same time and fell into depression.

It was during this time that he wrote the oft quoted lines: "Log toot jaate hain ek ghar banane mein, tum taras nahi khate bastiya jalane mein". The poet left Meerut and settled in Bhopal after that incident.

Bhardwaj's sharp memory turned out to be a blessing.

"I could remember 90 per cent of what he had narrated to me. And he would ask me about those couplets and I would narrate him back. I helped him retrieve at least 90 per cent of the poetry, it was like a year's work."

While Badr was in Meerut and teaching at the college there, Bhardwaj said he and the poet's friend Prem Bhandari formed an unlikely triad.

"Bhandari sahab was 60 years old. I was 19 years old and Bashir sahab must be 50 at that time. Only two people were allowed in the evening to be with him, me and Bhandari sahab. It was such a strange company because his children were not allowed. So, the three of us used to talk about poetry and life, what a triad this was."

Bhardwaj went on to build his reputation in the film industry, first as a composer and later as a filmmaker who introduced a new idiom to Hindi cinema with his movies, including the three successful adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies - "Maqbool" (Macbeth), "Omkara" (Othello) and later "Haider: (Hamlet).

But it was Badr who first recognised the composer in him.

"I was a musician in those days and he recognised that in me... I had no interest in literature. I was a very bad student. I never thought that I would have anything to do with Shakespeare.

"But you opened any book by Gulzar and Bashir Badr and I could recite the whole page. I had such a memory about these two poets. And at the subconscious level, my grooming happened because of Bashir Badr."

Even today, Bhardwaj said if he really forms a bond with someone, he gives Badr's book as a gift to that person. He bought over 50 copies of Badr's whole collection years ago.

"Whenever I love someone and I have to give them a gift, I give them a book of 'Culture Yaksan'. And if you received the book from me then that means you have my genuine love because when you read something so beautiful, you want to share the most beautiful part of your life."

Even when life got busier for them, they wouldn't leave without meeting each other whenever they were in the city, whether Bhardwaj was visiting Meerut or Badr Delhi. When Bhardwaj shot "Maqbool" in Bhopal, Badr would come and stay with Bhardwaj's family.

The filmmaker would also accompany the poet to mushairas across Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

"When I came to Bombay, he used to come to my house and stay. We have so many memories of Gulzar sahib and him together, they would discuss poetry for hours. They both were big fans of each other's work."

Badr was most happy with the success Bhardwaj achieved in the Mumbai film industry.

"Even when I was struggling, he would tell everyone, 'I'm Bashir Badr and you have to trust me when I say that this boy is very talented.'

"He was a saint, a beautiful saint. All poets are saints, but Bashir Badr was a saint of some other level," the filmmaker said.

Bhardwaj will attend a memorial for Badr on June 4 at Ravindra Bhawan in Bhopal.